CAN YOU SING, "IT'S A SMALL WORLD" ?

...Or, so goes the musical ditty that  was the background song for one of the rides through a well-known amusement complex in the Southern U.S.  (Well, it 'used to be', maybe still is; I haven't been there in over thirty years.  That kind of lapse occurs when your youngest 'child' is over forty.) But,back to the song.  Question: How far away does something have to be in order to be considered 'distant' ...in miles or years?  Answer: Not as far as in other times. 

   Consider: 
     .At the time of this writing, my daughter who lives in Germany is visiting in London; my step-son (I greatly dislike that designation) is a tourist in Paris; a brother is a tourist in Tokyo; our  D-2 (second daughter, though not biological) will soon go to Nepal for three weeks teaching  'English as Second Language' to students there; two of our good friends recently visited Australia and New Zealand, as well as accompanying us on an Alaska cruise last year;  my wife and I recently returned from a trip to the eastern Caribbean.  A generation or two ago, these wanderings would have been unheard of for families in our socio-economic demographic, unless in military deployment.
   
     .There is 'Facetime' or 'Skype' and other technological 'wonders'.  Have you utilized those features of technology?  That you have the tekky-savvy to access blogs might suggest that seeing someone half a world away while you converse is not an unknown phenomenon for you. I have been writing this blog approximately two months and I am amazed at the range of geographic 'hits' that have occurred.  A friend recently told me of his company's plan to conduct the initial round of job interviews using FaceTime. Though not a very good  Scrabble player, I have enjoyed playing with the same anonymous friends from US and 'overseas' for three or more years.

  .  Then there is the X levels of connectedness experience.  You know, you are talking with someone and discover that they know someone who knows someone you know, etc.  Several years ago, my son introduced me to a colleague and her husband.  I recognized him as having been a camper at the camp where I had worked as an undergraduate forty years previously.  Surprised him and me !  During that same visit, my son introduced me to another colleague.  He ,  also forty years prior,  had been a suite-mate at Wake Forest University of a high school classmate.
    . Walking down the street in "Somewhere in the World" you see an acquaintance from 'back home' or 'back then'.  On my last visit to Disney World in the late 1970's, I was surprised to see a colleague from the college where we taught some hundreds of miles away.  Probably you have had your own comparable experiences.
    .Travel time: Even allowing for the reality of missed flight connections, delays, gasoline prices, etc.,  the ease of moving from 'here' to 'there' bears no resemblance to 'how it used to be'.
In 1971, my immigrant grand-father ennumerated some of the changes that had occurred since his 1890 arrival at Ellis Island as a seven year old: automobiles, airplanes, wide-spread usage of telephones, radio, television, man on the moon ... to name some of the more obvious.  When I was a child, his living in south Alabama was , as the vernacular had it, ' a long way off' from our home in North Carolina.  It's still not 'next door' but it's much closer now.

      Seems to me that there are some implications of this 'small world'  Reality.  The "Better behave wherever you go, someone may recognize you" aphorism suggests the great need for integrity, being consistent in one's principles and actions.  I'm not suggesting some kind of 'Peckinsniff' sanctimonious, self-righteous pretense. .. rather, 'being who we are' in all times and places without duplicity.

   Imperialistic mentality or expressions of cultural superiority are anachronistic, at best. Xenophobia isnot pretty, however it may be packaged.  'Might makes Right' likely will never totally disappear but an awareness that other People, traditions, values, and their 'ways' are also valid seems imperative.  And this does not mean some kind of 'least common denominator' and 'anything goes' must prevail. 'Diversity' has become an over-worked code word for many while the need for mutual respect and accountability are increasingly needed. Encountering 'Rude' has become an unfortunate part of travel. Not a Universal, of course, but it's  'interesting' what being  away from home seems to make 'o.k.'
While the 'Ugly American' is often still dismissive of 'foreigners' ,
'get out of my way' belongs to no nationality.

   John Donne advised not to inquire for whom the village death bell tolled.  It tolls for all of us.  The diminishment of you diminishes me.  Acceptance of responsibility for one's choices, actions, etc. meets with great resistance from many persons. (But, perhaps, that's a topic for another occasion.)

    "It's a small world, after all" ...and it's getting smaller.


         Satchel